NAGANO, Japan -- Does it seem like a thief just swept in and stole the gold medal in the glamour event of the Winter Olympics, the ladies figure skating competition?

Tara Lipinski would never see it that way. In her mind, she always was the favorite. She even referred to herself that way two nights ago after a short program in which Michelle Kwan seemed to have the gold medal on automatic pilot.

Tara Lipinski also had a gold medal in sight...and she got it. (AP)

It seemed only the most daring of performances could lift Lipinski past Kwan after Kwan, again, skated brilliantly. After a lottery cast Kwan as the first to skate among the top six Friday night, there was every indication Lipinski would have to do something remarkable.

This is where figure skating always runs into tricky territory. The subjectivity of judging is far from perfect. Kwan continues to be an artistic marvel. It comes naturally. There was nothing she did to dispute her scores of 5.9 for presentation from all five judges.

IT TURNS OUT SHE LEFT ROOM for the 15-year-old Lipinski on the technical side, the only place where Lipinski could catch up. Lipinski is the young thoroughbred in this rivalry, which is a cruel but true thing to say when comparing a 15-year-old to a 17-year-old. All of 4-feet-10 and 80 pounds, Lipinski sizzles with terrific jumping ability.

For many observers, Kwan is more of a pleasure to watch. For these judges, Lipinski simply executed a more difficult program.

She had one trick in her arsenal that she needed to bring out to overcome Kwan's solid lead. It is a difficult triple-lutz-triple loop. Lipinski went for it. In fact, she went for it right in front of the judges. When she landed it, she smiled that cheek-to-cheek smorgasbord of euphoria and pumped her fists. Did she need this lobbying? We'll never know. All we know is that the scoring worked in her favor.

"I just tried to enjoy myself. And I did," Lipinski said. "I've been training hard and I've skated hard and when I went out there I didn't even have to think about it."

On balance, Lipinski came away with the gold because Kwan, to an extent, skated not to lose. Compared to Lipinski she was not as fast, not as daring.

Kwan was not bawling, was not offering the slightest look of bitterness or self-pity. You'd think she'd be entitled to the latter, just a little. She has had to battle a stress fracture of her foot that had a lot of people questioning two months ago whether she'd skate at her old level.

FIFTEEN MINUTES BEFORE LIPINSKI had skated, Kwan was so far beyond those worries as to seem invincible.

"I didn't watch Tara's performance. I rushed over to see my mom (after skating). I was just thinking, 'Am I going to win or am I going to be second? When I saw the score, I didn't disagree," Kwan said. "In the back of my mind I know I skated well."

When her program ended Kwan seemed to be in the midst of one of those all-time moments. The rush of camera flashes and descending flowers and swelling applause seemed even more momentous than what Lipinski would enjoy 20 minutes later. At the end of her triple lutz, she also threw in the slightest extra step.

We're talking about the slightest imperfection. It was enough, though, on a technical basis to give Kwan four scores of 5.8 and five of 5.7. Lipinski did not have one technical score below 5.8 and had four scores of 5.9.

Indeed, the loudest gasps involving Lipinski came as her scores were presented. You had to do some fast math to calculate whether the ordinals would put her ahead of Kwan. A moment later, the scoreboard flashed that they had.

Someone had stolen that gold medal.

Lipinski still looks more like a girl than a young woman. There does seem to be a more mature air about her at the Olympics than there was at the U.S. Championships in Philadelphia, when all she could manage were curt answers after falling in her short program.

The hard truth is that a 15- and 17-year-old, caught in a tremendous glare for months, held up better than most adults would. Yes, we know this sport is enriching them and that the pressure and attention are part of the price. Still, it is hard to imagine a more refined way of handling all that being the top two skaters at the Olympics.

KWAN SAID SHE INSTINCTIVELY felt some disappointment, some tears. But she also knew she had achieved "the job I had to do." She is already set to go back to California and try to figure out what to add to her program to make it harder, more compelling -- whatever it takes for a gold medal at the next Games.

That's heady stuff, 30 minutes after Tara Lipinski has stolen your gold medal by being such a terrific athlete.

"That's life. Everything I've done on the ice, I think it's all worth it even though I won the silver medal... When I got off the ice, I wasn't thinking... 'Did I leave the door open?' I was thinking, 'Oh my God, this is a great moment. It's only once in a lifetime you can walk off the ice with tears in your eyes."

Those were abundant tears of joy. It seemed like the final 20 seconds of her program, the part where she could glide to an easy finish, were a gold-medal coronation. The audience reacted that way.

Lipinski wasn't far behind. Or behind for long.